From Thug to Idol: Transmigrating to a Survival Show

June, his arms crossed in front of his chest, met Haruki's gaze with his own challenging stare.

"Do what?" he asked, wanting to squeeze the answer out of Haruki.

"You know what you did," Haruki said. "You're the reason why we're in this situation in the first place."

"I don't recall ever having a past with you," June honestly said. "So, won't you care to enlighten me about exactly what I did?"

Haruki chuckled bitterly as he shook his head.

"That's what you're good at, huh? Forgetting," he retorted.

June smiled. "I'm good at a lot of things. Not just forgetting. In fact, I'm probably even better than you," he taunted.

Haruki bit his lip to keep his composure. "Say that to my face when you're already on my level."

In the white room, only the sound of munching could be heard. That is until Akira broke the silence.

"They're good," he muttered. "They're really good."

Jisung, being the drama enthusiast that he was, nodded in agreement. This was better than most shows airing at the moment!

"It's like they're not acting at all," he said. "They're projecting their characters very well!"

The staff members watching in the control room also turned to each other in pleasant surprise.

"These two are doing much better than I thought," one of the producers said.

"Hmm," another hummed. "They're really good actors!"

"You'd do anything to debut, huh?" Haruki continued, still not letting the topic go. "You'd even go to extreme lengths just to get what you want."

"Because this is my dream," June sincerely said. "Can you hate a guy for wanting to run after his dreams?"

"Yes—if it means hurting other people in the process," Haruki responded.

"People come, and people go. People celebrate, and people get hurt. That's the rule of life that we can't escape. Some people will inevitably get hurt in the process," June deadpanned.

Haruki smirked. "I figured you would say that. You are the type of person to do anything for your dream."

"Aren't you the same?" June threw the question back at him.

Haruki's smirk dropped as he couldn't refute June's words.

"You and I are not the same," he said with resolution, almost gritting his teeth.

"Are you sure about that?" June egged on, wanting to know more about their past.

Right now, it seemed like they were speaking in riddles, and June couldn't decipher what Haruki was truly trying to say. He also didn't understand how this game would end.

"We're different," Haruki said. "My betrayal would not be as profound as yours. You're so shameless that you even forgot about what you did."

Just then, after Haruki uttered those words, a loud screeching sound was heard inside the room, causing the two to cover their ears.

However, the sound was the least of their worries because right then and there, the walls moved closer to the two of them, threatening to shrink further.

Those in the white room were shocked by what just happened.

"Alright, I'm starting to see a pattern here," Ren chimed. "First, they wanted to drown us. Then, they wanted to burn us alive. Now, they want to crush these two to death?"

Haruki and June started back at the black wall that nearly touched their respective chairs.

June paused, wondering why the wall pushed forward. Did they break a rule of some sort?

"Gosh, this is a nightmare," Haruki muttered. "I can't wait to wake up from it."

Just then, the wall moved once more, pushing their chairs closer to each other.

Their eyebrows furrowed in confusion as the walls showed no signs of stopping. Were they going to be crushed to death by the encroaching walls?

June's jaw clenched as he felt the room constricting around them.

"Don't break character," June said. "Continue talking."

Haruki pursed his lips and reverted back to the topic they were talking about earlier.

"You've hurt many people in the process," Haruki said.

With his statement, the walls finally stopped moving, causing the two to internally sigh in relief. So, it seemed like the walls would cave in once they broke character.

"Even you?" June asked.

Haruki paused for a moment while June waited for his answer. However, until the end, Haruki didn't respond. Instead, he continued talking about June's betrayal—one that the latter wasn't fully aware of.

The conversation between June and Haruki grew increasingly heated, each word laden with accusation and resentment. Haruki's voice trembled with emotion as he blamed June for shattering his dreams and betraying those around him. June, in turn, defended himself with equal fervor, refusing to back down in the face of Haruki's accusations.

"This is Oscar-worthy," Sehun said. "I almost believe that they actually have a past as trainees."

The other CHAOS members turned to each other with wide eyes, wondering if that was really the case. The members of EVE, too, finally realized that June was also once a trainee in Phoenix.

As the tension reached its breaking point, June's mind raced, searching for a way to diffuse the situation before it escalated further. His gaze flickered to the small engravings on the walls—

Wait…engravings?

The words 'In,' 'The,' 'Of,' and 'Its' were engraved on the walls—

words that seemed out of place amidst the chaos of their conversation.

"Everything happens for a reason. Everything you see is there for a reason."

The weird voice echoed inside June's mind.

With a sudden realization, June's eyes widened in understanding. The engravings held the key to his salvation, a clue hidden in plain sight that only he had noticed. But Haruki, too caught up in his character and the intensity of the moment remained oblivious to June's discovery.

Haruki uttered the word 'betrayal' once again, causing the walls of the chamber to close in once more.

The room shrinked around them, pressing them closer together until their knees were touching.

"Betrayal," June repeated, his voice barely a whisper as he maintained his composure. With each passing moment, the walls squeezed tighter, threatening to crush them beneath their weight.

But then, as if a switch had been flipped in his mind, June pieced together the hidden sentence, the words tumbling from his lips with a sense of urgency.

"The sweet taste of betrayal, bitter victory in its wake," he declared, his voice ringing out.

The room turned silent, and even those in the white room were stunned by June's sudden exclamation.

And with those words, the walls finally returned to their original place.